Brave Bang Bravern!

Episode 6

Episode 6 of Brave Bang Bravern! is easily the funniest of the season thus far, with good action to boot.

Nearly all of the comedy beats in this episode hit the mark. There is a great variety of comedy on offer, from character-based moments to slapstick silly antics to fourth-wall-breaking absurdity. Of course, the most meta-joke was when Bravern punched Superbai with the 4Kids Install Breaker™ (this is the official name and not something I made up, don't look into it) and allowed everyone to understand him. Bravern specifically says that all the children of the world would be able to understand him now, with the particular joke here (likely) being Texas is one of the major hubs for US dubbing. It's an inside baseball kind of joke that works well, in my opinion.

Bravern has been silly all season but he seemed to grow into a more active comedic character in this week's outing. I particularly love the bit where he displayed his title screen behind himself as he challenged Superbai to open combat. I think what's interesting is how - to my mind at least - he is beginning to shift ever so subtly. I think in the early episodes the series made it seem as though Bravern simply had a different energy from the rest of the cast, as though the audience knew he was from a super robot series but in-text he was just a bit of an odd duck comparatively. At this point, I think it's clear that he is very aware that he is a super robot, and I love that completely.

There are other great bits here, like the plentiful chonky rugged robot designs and dramatic moments with Bravern redirecting the missiles. The standout for me though was Smith watching tokusatsu on his tablet before heading out to do his job - I feel exposed.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Brave Bang Bravern! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.